Microscopic Life in the Ocean at the South Pole. 559 



Wollaston, moreover, in 1840 proved that at the great depth of 

 670 fathom, in the Mediterranean Sea off Gibraltar, the proportion 

 of salt in the water was four times greater than at the surface. 

 Very accurate and scientific investigations upon the amount of 

 salts of the sea had been already published by Lenz in Petersburg 

 during 1830 ; and Mr. Lyell, in his ' Geology' of 1840, was induc- 

 ed to regard the observations of Wollaston not as simply indicating 

 a local phenomenon, but to conclude that at still greater depths the 

 relative proportion of saline matter would be still more remarkable, 

 and must progress in a similar advancing ratio. 



Lastly, Elie de Beaumont, in 1841, adopted the opinion, that 

 the limits to which the waters of the sea had been found by Siau 

 capable of being set in motion, must be also those at which ses- 

 sile marine animals could exist, since these have to wait for their 

 food, which in this way only could be conveyed to them, and that 

 consequently the limits of stationary organic life, taken in con- 

 junction with the depth of the waves, could not much exceed 200 

 metres or 600 foot. 



Such considerations, deeply affecting the general science of geo- 

 logy, and to which must be added observations upon the increase 

 of temperature towards the centre of the earth have ever suggested 

 as an interesting matter for inquiry to the author, to examine minute 

 organic life in relation to the depth of the element in which it 

 could exist. 



Science indeed owes a great debt of gratitude to those travel- 

 lers who have so industriously provided the materials of this in- 

 vestigation ; in respect of which materials it may be observed 

 generally, that they are very rich in quite new typical forms, 

 particularly in genera, of which some contain several species ; these, 

 occasionally with some mud and fragments of small crustaceans, 

 form the chief part of the mass. The new genera* and species are 

 here recorded, and of these the Asteromphali are very remarkable, 

 from their particularly beautiful stellate forms. 



* Of the 7 new genera of Polygastrica, viz. Anaulus, Aster omphalus, Ckce- 

 toceros, Halionyx, Hemiaulus, Hemizoster, and Triauiacias, short characters 

 arc given in the Proceedings of the Academy : also of the 71 new species. 



